For police working Des Moines' south side, the complex has long been a frequent destination. Since last August, officers have been called there more than 260 times, for everything from domestic disputes and fights, to drug overdoses, burglaries and gunshots, police records show.

Evictions aren't uncommon. But in a city with an abundance of low-income workers and shortage of low-income housing, new renters with Section 8 vouchers and other housing assistance fill the 84 units quickly.

Tonya LaFarr, 39, moved into Summerplace after 3½ years of homelessness. She said she had lived under bridges until Eyerly Ball helped cover the $625-a-month rent for a year.

But on July 13, water from the floor above LaFarr poured through the ceiling of the apartment of her next-door neighbor, Timothy Evans. Evans, 61, said he lost furniture, a smart TV and other belongings after another tenant fell asleep with the water on.

Evans’ ceiling came down, the living room was ruined, and a hairy dark mold began growing in the unit’s bathroom in the weeks following the unrepaired damage.

Thick mold grows out of a bathroom light fixture in Timothy Evans' former unit at Summerplace. The unit remained without electricity last week.(Photo: Lee Rood)

Next door, LaFarr said she grew sick with a respiratory infection and bronchitis — so bad, she said, she missed work at a new telemarketing job and recently was fired despite a doctor’s note.

“I go outside and I am fine. I come back in and I can’t breathe,” she said. “I have nowhere to go from here but the shelter.”

Black mold is a frequent complaint of renters to Reader's Watchdog and is cause for concern because it can cause chronic coughing and sneezing, eye irritation, restricted breathing, rashes and fatigue.

Left untreated, it can be life-threatening, especially to those with other existing health problems.

But the problems at Summerplace run much deeper than one woman’s illness.

LaFarr, who also has used the last name Stephenson, was the fourth tenant this summer to contact Watchdog about living conditions there. Others complained of housing code violations, poor maintenance, bug infestations, crime and retaliatory management.

One disabled tenant picketed the place this month, carrying a sign that read: “Stay Away,” and then moved.

The $2.6 million complex is owned by a limited liability corporation formed by a Pleasant Hill investor, Ryan Winter, state and county records show.

Winter — who, county records show, lives in a $618,000 home in Pleasant Hill and maintains an office on Fleur Drive — owns another complex called Summer Woods Apartments that has been for sale at 3700 Martin Luther King Blvd.

But Des Moines has many such complexes that have fallen into deep disrepair, local property managers say.

“It’s pretty simple. Slum landlords exist throughout the U.S. because it’s a very profitable business to be into,” said Jim Conlin, who has owned and managed properties in Des Moines for 50 years.

“There’s been so much money chasing the acquisition of these kinds of apartments. People buy something that is not well maintained and then try to flip it for $10,000 a unit,” he said.

“When the music stops playing … there’s going to be an adjustment. And those with deteriorated properties, unqualified tenants and negative cash flow aren’t going to be standing when that adjustment is over.”

Conlin said city inspectors sometimes are too lenient with such properties, but they have to be because so many Des Moines residents need affordable housing.

A mix of research shows Des Moines residents enjoy a high standard of living and a glut of higher-income rentals downtown, but the housing crisis afflicting lower-income families and minimum-wage workers is growing worse.

The city has just 30 affordable units available for every 100 families who need them, according to one recent study by the Urban Institute. The divide was worse than Omaha or Brooklyn, New York.

Those who complain about their living conditions routinely risk homelessness.

Don't like it? Get out

LaFarr said she reported problems in her unit to a maintenance worker two or three times, the last time Aug. 20.

She also called Des Moines’ Neighborhood Inspections Division but said they told her that they can only take complaints about the unit a tenant actually lives in.

Then she called Watchdog, and after Watchdog contacted the Neighborhood Inspections Division, inspectors showed up to the complex Wednesday, finding numerous code violations and structural damage.

Suann Donovan, the administrator of that division, said the city had two recent complaints — for bedbugs and general maintenance — before the concerns raised in LaFarr's apartment.

She said a notice went out to the property owner and it appeared the water damaged apartment could be fixed in about 30 days. The whole complex will not be inspected until next summer.

On Thursday, LaFarr was given notice she was being evicted for alleged drug use and dealing in her unit, she said.

Complex manager Cheryl Jarvis said LaFarr and other tenants spoke to Watchdog out of retaliation “for situations you are not aware of.”

Jarvis said maintenance workers track complaints by tenants and contends they weren’t aware of the mold problem and other concerns neighbors raised until this past week.

She said the complex, once known to have a serious meth problem, has come a long way since she was hired to run the place in January 2015.

“You ask anybody about us. We help out and we work with tenants a lot,” she said. “In this business, you have to be able to care about people. But we cannot address an issue if we are not aware.”

Jarvis said she has dealt with an array of problems — stolen hallway cameras, drug dealing, meth-making, widespread lease or Section 8 contract violations, trashed apartments — but she tries to run the place with compassion.

She contended police calls at the three buildings have declined. Police records show there were about 25 more calls in 2014 than in 2017.

She said the complex is under contract for sale.

Evans, the tenant whose apartment sustained the water damage, did not contact Watchdog.

In an interview at the complex, he said, Jarvis did move him into a larger apartment after the accident. But he said the place has fallen into such deep disrepair that he thinks it should be torn down.

“People don’t need to live like this, but everybody here does,” he said.

Tenant Tobi Baker, 50, said she’s also contacted management about significant water damage to her unit but complained maintenance workers don’t fix things as professionals would.

“I just feel the whole apartment complex is neglected,” she said.

But Baker also admits arguing with Jarvis over whether she can have a therapy dog in her unit.

After 10 months at Summerplace, Quinton Dennis is one of the longest tenants in the complex.

He said the place is plagued with people who violate the rules, use drugs, drag furniture in from dumpsters, and welcome people from the neighborhood who shouldn’t be staying there.

Workers began working Thursday inside Tim Evans' apartment he said was severely damaged July 13.(Photo: Lee Rood)

But Dennis said it’s true that the managers did nothing about the severe water damage in Evans’ apartment that led to the mold problem, until LaFarr called Watchdog.

“They never have touched it. That is inappropriate,” he said.

No shortcuts

Conlin Properties owns and manages Sunburst Apartments, a block north on Southwest Ninth from Summerplace.

Jim Conlin said his company invested $50,000 in removing a pool there, another $100,000 in new parking. Cameras in the buildings are hardwired. The company, which manages 6,000 units, screens tenants on its computer system.

Conlin said he has tried to buy Summerplace several times, and fixing it would be no easy feat.

“You’d have to invest an enormous amount of money and evict unqualified tenants. To do that, you’d have to close the doors. … I’d have to buy it at a price that would allow a total renovation and then a return on your money.”

Conlin said a recent University of Iowa study found $832 million would have to be spent to bring the city’s substandard housing up to par.

“It’s not going to be solved in your lifetime or even your grandchildren’s lifetime," he said. "But you have to make a start somewhere. And that starts by admitting there’s a problem.”

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com, 515-284-8549 on Twitter @leerood or at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog.